Project Title
Healthy Futures NYC: Expanding Access, Advancing Equity, and Strengthening Care
Grant Amount
$200,000
Priority Area
Primary Care
Date Awarded
June 2, 2025
Region
NYC
Status
In Progress
Website
Maternal death and serious complications, particularly among Black women and birthing people, are among the most persistent racial health disparities.
While pregnancy and childbirth can be a time of joy, too many women and birthing people of color lack access to empowering, whole-person care that promotes safe and healthy pregnancies. Nearly three out of four pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Primary care offers a critical opportunity to address maternal health disparities and coordinate care before, during, and after pregnancy, but primary care is currently underutilized. In 2025, NYHealth issued an inaugural Request for Proposals (RFP), “Primary Care: Advancing Maternal Health Equity Through Primary and Preventive Care,” to support projects that identify racial disparities in maternal health care and outcomes, use primary and preventive care to reduce those disparities, and measure progress to improve racial health equity. NYHealth awarded the Fund for the City of New York on behalf of Asthma Intervention and Relief Network (AIRnyc) a grant to participate in this initiative.
Under this initiative, AIRnyc will expand its partnership with Ryan Health to fully integrate Community Health Workers (CHWs) into prenatal, postpartum, and pediatric care at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Northern Manhattan, addressing the system fragmentation that contributes to racial disparities in maternal health. CHWs will provide coordinated support from early pregnancy up to 12 months postpartum. Over the two-year grant period, AIRnyc will hire an additional CHW-doula, convene patient advisory groups, and collaborate with Ryan Health to pilot Medicaid reimbursement for CHW services. By embedding CHWs into clinical practice and securing long-term financing, the project aims to close care gaps, improve maternal health outcomes, and advance racial health equity.